Wales Under 18 squad announced

11 February 2013 16:04pm

By Liz Jones

Allan Lewis sees his Wales side take on France and England at St Helens

Wales Under 18 head coach Allan Lewis has reduced his training squad to 36 in readiness for the forthcoming capped games against France and England at Swansea's St Helens ground (Feb 24 and March 10 respectively).

In France and England we are playing two of the major powers in age group rugby so it will be a great test of where we are

For these matches, the selectors have used the older September 1st cut-off date for eligibility, in line with the academic year, whereas players born before January 1 1995 will be too old to qualify for the FIRA-AER tournament at Easter and younger players will have a chance to stake a claim for a place in the squad for that tournament.

Wales Under 18 will play Leicester Tigers Academy in a warm-up game tomorrow (Tuesday, 12 February, 2.30, also at St Helens) in preparation for the Tests against France and England.

Lewis said: "In France and England we are playing two of the major powers in age group rugby so it will be a great test of where we are."

Lewis, who is WRU National Academy coaching manager, has implemented a playing philosophy at Under 18 level which prioritises attacking rugby above all else.

"As a management team we started identifying players very early this season which gave us the chance to watch a lot of Regional and Colleges League rugby, which reinforced what we were seeing at our National training camps," he added.

"Challenging the opposition with the ball in hand is a real priority for us at this age group, we are encouraging these players to use the kicking option as a last resort in order to improve all-round attacking skills.

"The likes of France in particular, and England are able to play either kind of rugby - ball in hand or a more forward orientated game so these matches will be an excellent yardstick for us.

"We are pleased with the development of this group of players, both individually and collectively but you only really get an accurate assessment from seeing how players react to a match situation and that's where the Leicester game will help on Tuesday, and obviously the forthcoming international matches themselves."

With the likes of Tom Prydie, Geroge North and Harry Robinson having stepped straight into Warren Gatland's national squad from Wales Under 18, Lewis is travelling to Japan with Robin McBryde's Wales coaching team in June in an observational capacity.

"We are working closely with the national coaches to ensure we pass their philosophies and practices straight down to our Under 18 players so that the transition to the senior game is as smooth as possible," Lewis said.

Wales head coach Warren Gatland revealed that he was satisfied with the two wins from four games during the autumn's Under Armour Series. WRU TV recaps the matches against Australia, Georgia, New Zealand and South Africa.

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The introduction of girls-only, summer rugby has been so successful that 15 new teams have been set up at under 15, under 18 and senior level around Wales for the traditional season. The Pontypool-based Arrows are one of these, as WRU TV finds out.